Yale address
Former President William Jefferson Clinton Remarks
Yale University October 6, 2001
"Fanatics are defined by their hatreds;
free people by their humanity."
"Throughout our history, America’s mission has been to
widen the circle of opportunity, to deepen the meaning
of freedom, to strengthen the bonds of community. Now,
even beyond our borders, we can no longer deny to others
what we claim for ourselves. That is the ultimate lesson
for the interdependent world. We are going to get through
this crisis. Our leaders are going to make good decisions.
But in the end, we not only have to stop bad things from
happening, we have to build for you, the best, the most
prosperous, the most peaceful and most exciting time the
world has ever known. And we can do it, if we remember
who we are and what we believe.
http://www.clintonpresidentialcenter.com/yale.html
___________________________________________________________________________
Clinton Encourages Islam Debate"
I like it! Clinton doesn't give up...
By LAURIE KELLMAN Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - As part of its war against terrorism, the
U.S. must encourage debate between the Islamic factions who
hate Americans enough to murder them and those who don't,
former President Clinton said Wednesday.
``This is partly a Muslim issue, because there is a war
raging within Islam'' between extremists and moderates,
Clinton told several thousand students and fellow alumni at
Georgetown University. ``We need to reach out and engage the
Muslim world in a debate.''
The freedom-of-speech theme is part of a recipe for the nation's
war on terrorism that Clinton has delivered around the world
since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
more...
Yale Address
Article
--snippet--
"Here in the United States, we were founded as a nation
that practiced slavery, and slaves quite frequently were
killed even though they were innocent," said Mr. Clinton
in a speech to nearly 1,000 students at Georgetown University's
ornate Gaston Hall.
"This country once looked the other way when a significant
number of native Americans were dispossessed and killed to
get their land or their mineral rights or because they were
thought of as less than fully human.
"And we are still paying a price today," said Mr. Clinton,
who was invited to address the students by the university's
School of Foreign Service.
Some students camped out overnight to obtain tickets.
The former president, a member of the Jesuit university's
Class of 1968, opened his 50-minute speech by thanking a
former teacher.
--snippet--
"I submit to you that we are now in a struggle for the soul
of the 21st century and the world in which you students will
live to raise your own children and make your own way," he said.
Mr. Clinton said the international terrorism that has only
just reached the United States dates back thousands of years.
"In the first Crusade, when the Christian soldiers took
Jerusalem, they first burned a synagogue with 300 Jews in
it and proceeded to kill every woman and child who was a
Muslim on the Temple Mount. I can tell you that story is
still being told today in the Middle East and we are still
paying for it."
Mr. Clinton said America needs to pay more attention to its
enemies and to the way the United States is viewed by the
rest of the world.
"There are a lot of people that see the world differently
than we do. It is quite important that we do more to build
the pool of potential partners in the world and to shrink the
pool of potential terrorists. And that has nothing to do with
fighting, but that has to do with what else we do.
"This is partly a Muslim issue, because there is a war raging
within Islam. We need to reach out and engage the Muslim world
in a debate."
Mr. Clinton referred to stories in the media about some
American citizens cheering the terrorist attacks and suspected
mastermind Osama bin Laden.
"This debate is going on all over America. We've got to stop
pretending this isn't out there," he said.
--snippet--
"We ought to pay for these children to go to school — a lot
cheaper than going to war," he said.
Perhaps most important, he said, is democracy.
"It's no accident that most of these terrorists come from
non-democratic countries. If you live in a country where you're
never required to take responsibility for yourself, where you
never even have to ask whether there's something you should be
doing to solve your own problems, then people are kept in kind
of a permanent state of collective immaturity and it becomes
quite easy for them to believe that someone else's success is
the cause of their distress.
"We've got to defeat people who think they can find their
redemption in our destruction. And then we have to be smart
enough to get rid of our arrogant self-righteousness so that
we don't claim for ourselves things we deny for others."
--end--
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20011108-470100.htm
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